As the Scandal Escalates, Now the Inevitable Tape Appears

V.K. Singh checked his mobile phone prior to a press conference in Hyderabad, March 5.

Ever since Watergate and the infamous tapes that sank President Richard Nixon, revelatory recordings with a whiff of intrigue have become the inevitable accompaniment to scandal.

India has taken this relationship to new heights in recent years, with scandals of all stripes being given an extra frisson of B-grade spy movie intrigue by the appearance of tapes that purportedly confirm otherwise he-said-she-said or he-said-he-said allegations.

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The latest: Earlier this week, India’s army chief, General V.K. Singh, told a newspaper that he was offered a 140-million-rupee ($2.74 million) bribe to clear the purchase of substandard military vehicles. In the article he said nothing about having recorded evidence; he only said he had told Defense Minister A.K. Antony of the claim. Mr. Antony confirmed that and said he has referred the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation for a probe.

And before you could say “Hit Record,” the Press Trust of India reported that on Tuesday the CBI had received a tape allegedly containing an animated exchange between Gen. Singh and the person whom he claims tried to bribe him, a retired Army officer. Citing unnamed CBI sources, the PTI report said the tapes had not been authenticated.

The fact that Gen. Singh’s conversation was apparently recorded shouldn’t really be a surprise. Who can forget in the winter of 2010 the fact that what started a scandal over the 2008 second-generation telecom spectrum allotment shot off in hundreds of different directions – to the role of the media, to lobbying, to cocktail dresses and corporate honchos — with the release of the Radia Tapes.

Associated Press

Pictured, Niira Radia.

Recorded wiretaps of Tata Group lobbyist Niira Radia, leaked to the media, were taken by many as evidence the conglomerate chaired by Ratan Tata had done something wrong in relation to the 2G spectrum case.

But while the tapes raised ethical questions on the very close relation the high-powered lobbyist enjoyed with some of India’s best-known journalists, they turned out to be a poor indication of who the CBI investigation would zoom in on.

Then there was theBhushan Tape. Last April, after Anna Hazare’s first anticorruption fast stirred anxiety in government circles, a CD landed in the hands of the local media purportedly recording Shanti Bhushan discussing a bribe. The CD turned out to be doctored. Mr. Bhushan, a Supreme Court lawyer, is also a member of Team Anna so many wondered, with reason, whether the CD was aimed at discrediting him politically.

More recently, in November, an audio tape emerged in the case of a nurse, Bhanwari Devi, who had been missing, and was possibly murdered. The audio recordings purportedly show that Ms. Devi had been blackmailing a government official in Rajasthan by threatening to publicly disclose they had an intimate relationship. The official, who denied any wrongdoing, was sacked from his post over the allegations. A court said that while the audio clip could be admitted, it would only be “weak” evidence.

European Pressphoto Agency

Prashant Bhushan at a press conference in New Delhi, July 28.

In fact, it’s surprising the tape was admissible as evidence at all. Indian law is quite strict when it comes to accepting video or audio recordings as evidence – unless, of course, its law enforcement officials that are behind it in first place. (That’s because tapes are generally easier to doctor than to authenticate.)

What do these cases have in common? For one, while stirring media gossip, the tapes have led to little concrete in terms of legal action. Rather, they add more in terms of political intrigue than they do of true revelation about the scandal they purport to address.

It also makes us wonder what is not being recorded given that tapes appear now to accompany almost all contentious issues. But, more than anything, the tapes, given how easy they are to doctor, are starting to actually diminish rather than bolster the sense of outrage that should accompany genuine scandal.

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